Sustainable Employment

Our goal is to provide sustainable jobs — more than just a livable wage and more than simply cash compensation. In FY ’08, we began developing our sustainable jobs model in our home state of Vermont. Drawing on the work of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (www.vbsr.org) and their Livable Jobs Toolkit, we used regional and state economic data to create a compensation model that more accurately accounts for the full range of benefits (both financial and nonfinancial) we offer our employees, including programs such as:

• Flexible Work Arrangements: compressed work weeks; a combined paid time off program; and referrals for services (such as an Employee Assistance Plan).
• New Ways of Looking at Cash Compensation: programs to reduce employee expenses (such as our wellness program); sliding scale insurance contributions; profit-sharing; and standards-based pay rates.
• Beyond Cash Compensation: company-assisted health, dental, and vision insurance; company paid life and disability insurance plans; an employee hardship fund; flexible benefit and health savings plans; dependent care assistance plan; tuition reimbursement; and 401(k) plans.